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Pastoral at the Boundaries: the Hybridization of Genre in the Fourteenth-Century Italian Eclogue Revival

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Pastoral at the Boundaries: the Hybridization of Genre in the Fourteenth-Century Italian Eclogue Revival Pastoral at the Boundaries: The Hybridization of Genre in the Fourteenth-Century Italian Eclogue Revival By Jonathan David Combs-Schilling A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Italian Studies in the Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in Charge: Professor Albert Russell Ascoli, Chair Professor Steven Botterill Professor Timothy Hampton Fall 2012 Abstract Pastoral at the Boundaries: The Hybridization of Genre in the Fourteenth-Century Italian Eclogue Revival by Jonathan David Combs-Schilling Doctor of Philosophy in Italian Studies University of California, Berkeley Professor Albert Russell Ascoli, Chair This dissertation demonstrates that one of the principal aspects of pastoral is its identity as a metagenre by focusing attention on the Latin pastoral production of the fourteenth-century eclogue revival in Italy, and by integrating that production into larger estimations of pastoral’s history. Long taken to be a closed circuit within, or a derivative offshoot of, the genre’s history, the eclogues of Dante, Petrarch and Boccaccio at once accentuated the metageneric elements of classical pastoral and influenced the future of pastoral representations through their consistent exploration of pastoral’s boundary- crossing double move—an expansionary movement outward into the representational terrain of other genres and a recuperative (and incorporative) return to the fold. My first chapter, “Dante’s Two Reeds: Pastoral Hierarchies and Hybrids,” examines Dante in terms of this double move, positions his eclogues at the origins of a new era of pastoral representation, and addresses why the first continuous tradition of pastoral production in the history of the genre begins with their 165 verses. I individuate one of the principal causes of their influence to be the epistolary context out of which they were forged. By sending his eclogues as letters to the protohumanist Giovanni del Virgilio, Dante harnesses the boundary-traversing movement of epistolarity and invests the metageneric movement of pastoral with a new critical thrust. With this new orientation, Dante utilizes the genre’s self-figured humility to interrogate and overturn Giovanni’s rigid distinctions between high and low literature and, in the systematically hybrid second eclogue, produces a pastoral fiction that is at once low and high. There is both a vertical and a horizontal aspect to Dante’s use of pastoral as metagenre, and though the two are conjoined, my next two chapters argue that Petrarch explores its vertical aspect through a methodical comparison with epic, while Boccaccio explores its horizontal aspect through a narratologically innovative breach of pastoral’s diegetic horizon. In chapter 2, “Translatio bucolicorum: Pastoral and the Place of Epic in Petrarch’s Bucolicum carmen,” through an analysis of his first eclogue and his letters, in particular Familiares 21.15, I reveal that Petrarch conceived of his collection as a response to the letter that Giovanni had sent Dante, whereby he not only attempts to replace Dante as the originator of the pastoral revival but also figures his collection as an 1 “answer” to Giovanni’s request for a new Latin epic. In this light, I proceed to examine Petrarch’s pervasive appropriation of epic tropes and strategies, in particular translatio imperii, as he extends the implications of Dante’s high-low hybrid to pastoralize the book of epic, and in the process generates the first modern collection of eclogues. In my third chapter, “Tending to the Boundary: Between Inner and Outer Pastoral in Boccaccio’s Buccolicum carmen,” I redress critical estimations of Boccaccio’s usage of allegory in his eclogue collection to show that it is not a departure from “authentic” pastoral but rather works in concert with the other innovations he brings to the genre, most noticeably the sharp increase in dramatic movement within the eclogues and the narratological complexity deployed in the songs of their protagonists. By narrativizing the arrival of allegory to the landscape of pastoral, as well as its departure, Boccaccio drastically increases the genre’s representational purview while also maintaining the autonomy of its fictions. This provokes a doubling of the landscape, which becomes mapped into two distinct but overlapping spaces: an inner pastoral, a more conventional Arcadian scene, and an outer pastoral, a liminal space where the genre encounters and pastoralizes the system of literature beyond its borders. The cumulative effect of this inquiry is a two-fold recognition: first, while still respecting the distinctions between the pastoral poetics of the tre corone, we can meaningfully speak of the fourteenth-century eclogue revival as a movement; and, second, it was a movement that helped shape pastoral’s future as a metagenre. 2 For Kathleen McDermott and William Sloane Coffin senza di voi languisce il cor i Table of Contents Acknowledgments iii Introduction Pastoral as Metagenre 1-10 Chapter 1 Dante’s High and Low Reeds: 11-44 Pastoral Hierarchies and Hybrids Chapter 2 Translatio bucolicorum: 45-82 Pastoral and the Place of Epic in Petrarch’s Bucolicum carmen Chapter 3 Tending to the Boundary: 83-122 Between Inner and Outer Pastoral in Boccaccio’s Buccolicum carmen Bibliography 123-35 ii Acknowledgments That I should have become so invested in the affairs of shepherds surprises no one more so than me. Yet with the dissertation now complete, I can see that the seeds of this project were planted in the years 2000-2001, while I was still an undergraduate, during my studies with Professors Jean Howard and Teodolinda Barolini. With the former, I first encountered the green fields of pastoral, in the form of Spenser’s Shepheardes Calender, and under the latter’s guidance I began to approach the three poets at the heart of this dissertation: Dante, Petrarch and Boccaccio. Without the two of them, I would not do what I do, and for this and much more, I give them my most heartfelt thanks. My greatest debt is owed to the members of my dissertation committee. Professor Albert Russell Ascoli has been an illuminating guide, a tireless reader, and a nourishing mentor at every stage of this project and has become a dear friend in the process. I will happily carry my professional and personal debt to him for many years to come. My deepest thanks as well to Professor Timothy Hampton, in whose office hours I first forged my take on pastoral. His intellectual exuberance has made this process more enjoyable, and his probing questions have made me a better reader. Finally, Professor Steven Botterill, through his encouragement, advice, consistent acts of kindness, and sharp eye for grammatical infelicities has improved the process of, and hopefully the writing contained within, this dissertation. It has been an unqualified pleasure to work with all three of them. My gratitude extends to other Berkeley professors. In particular, I am most grateful for Louise George Clubb’s warm and generous mentorship. It was an honor to be one of her final students, and I hope to be able to explore as deeply and defend as eloquently a genre that is dear to her heart. My thanks, as well, to Professors Mia Fuller and Barbara Spackman who have improved and enlivened my time at Berkeley. Over the years, there have also been many others who have offered their receptive ears to my take on pastoral, and so I extend many thanks to the following professors for their insightful and encouraging comments: Theodore J. Cachey Jr., William J. Kennedy, Ronald L. Martinez, Giuseppe Mazzotta, Jane Tylus, and David Quint. The quality of my experience in graduate school has been improved immeasurably by the community that I have encountered here. I offer my thanks, first, to Aileen Astorga Feng and Stephanie Malia Hom who have offered me invaluable advice and kind encouragement at every turn. My heartfelt thanks as well to Sole Anatrone, Chris Atwood, Greg Bonetti, Angela Matilde Capodivacca, Chris Churchill, Kfir Cohen, Craig Davidson, Armando Di Carlo, Leslie Elwell, Marisa Escolar, Jennifer Johung, Kate Noson, Rebecca Falkoff, Nandini Pandey, Camille Peters, Ariel Shannon, Sara Troyani, Rhiannon Welch, Fabiana Woodfin, and Brandon Woolf. And my many, many thanks and love to Natalie Cleaver, Anthony Martire, Scott Millspaugh, and Kelly Rafferty, who have made these last years the happiest of my life. Finally, my deepest gratitude to my parents for their ceaseless support and boundless affection. iii Introduction Pastoral as Metagenre Few literary categories have been laden with more ponderous and variegated forms of non-literary significance than has pastoral. In the two millennia of its reception history, many a reader has considered it light fare, a pleasant but frivolous retreat from the cares of the modern world (or, in Samuel Johnson’s more caustic formulation, an “easy, vulgar, and therefore disgusting” poetic enterprise),1 yet those critics who have found a greater substance beneath the humble garb of shepherds have taken pastoral very seriously indeed. The discrete boundaries of Arcadia have been claimed variously as part of the vast territories of philosophy, theology, and politics, while the effects engendered by its landscape and by its inhabitants have been categorized as a vehicle for the moral reformation of its readers, an outlet for their anxiety concerning urban existence, and a mirror in which their basic humanity is reflected.2 The proliferation of intellectual,
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